The fattest of patches has just landed smack bang in the middle of the EU Qualifiers #3 for the ESL Atlantic Showdown. Those poor bastards! A new virtual nagging mother called Ana, hugely impactful hero rebalances and a myriad of gameplay changes await them, but luckily if they played the recent PTR then they will mostly be up to speed.

The rest of us can take our time to savour this monumental update which officially ushers in the era of Hero Limit 1 to competitive play. The full patch notes are featured below for your perusal:

PATCH FEATURES

New Hero: Ana (Support)

After being out of the fight for several years, one of Overwatch's founding members is returning. Introducing Ana—a battle-scarred veteran who supports her teammates from a distance using a unique and highly specialized collection of weapons.

Ana’s primary weapon is her Biotic Rifle, which fires long-range darts that can restore the health of her allies or deal ongoing damage to her enemies. Meanwhile, her Biotic Grenade is perfect for a close-quarters clash, simultaneously healing teammates and injuring foes caught in its small area of effect. (Affected allies will also receive a temporary increase to all incoming healing, while affected enemies can’t be healed for a few moments.) And if the battle starts to get out of hand, Ana's sidearm can fire a Sleep Dart, knocking her adversaries unconscious.

Plus, Ana's ultimate ability, Nano Boost, empowers one of her teammates, granting faster movement, increased damage, and resistance to enemy attacks.

To learn more about Ana, click here.

GENERAL UPDATES

Gameplay

  • If a match goes into Overtime for more than 20 seconds, the fuse will now start to "burn down" more quickly
  • Players now respawn more slowly during Overtime (increased spawn time by 2 seconds)

Competitive Play

  • Competitive Play matches can now only have one of each hero per team.

Miscellaneous

  • Added Ana as an AI-controlled hero in Practice vs. AI, Play vs. AI, and Custom Game modes
  • Timing on Zenyatta's Rapid Discord achievement is more lenient
  • Targeted teammates now respond by saying "I'm with you," when players use the “Group Up” communication
  • Renamed five sprays to avoid duplicate titles

HERO BALANCE UPDATES

General

  • Self-healing abilities now charge ultimate abilities. As a result, some heroes’ ultimate costs have been adjusted (see below).

Bastion

  • Configuration: Tank
    • Ultimate cost increased by 10%

D.Va

  • Defense Matrix
    • Cooldown decreased from 10 seconds to 1 second
    • A new resource meter has been added. This meter will deplete while Defense Matrix is active and then recharge when it’s not in use.
      • Defense Matrix takes 10 seconds to reach full charge from empty
      • At a full charge, Defense Matrix will last for 4 seconds
      • Defense Matrix will now remain active as long as its assigned hotkey is held
    • Defense Matrix has been reclassified as an alternate fire and is now bound to RMB (by default)
      • An option to “Toggle Defense Matrix” has been added under Options > Controls > D.Va
  • Self-Destruct
    • Ultimate cost decreased by 15%
    • Explosion delay reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds
    • Explosion no longer damages D.Va (the player who activates it)

Developer Notes: D.Va isn't being selected as often as our other tanks, and we feel a lot of that stems from the underperformance of her damage absorption abilities. So, we've reconfigured her Defensive Matrix, making it more flexible and giving players the ability to use it more often. We’ve also given Self-Destruct a little more oomph, because it felt slightly underwhelming when compared to many of Overwatch's other ultimate abilities.

Lúcio

  • Sound Barrier
    • Ultimate cost increased by 10%

McCree

  • Peacekeeper
    • Now maintains full damage at longer distances, but will deal less damage at extreme ranges

Developer Notes: While the game does feel better following the nerf to McCree’s close-range damage in a previous patch, it left him a little too weak. So, we're increasing his effective distance, making his range similar to Soldier: 76’s. This should hopefully give players another option for dealing with pesky long-range damage dealing heroes like Pharah and Hanzo.

Mercy

  • Caduceus Staff
    • Damage Boost
      • Effect will no longer stacks with bonus damage provided by another Mercy
  • Resurrect
    • Ultimate charge cost increased by 30%
    • Movement is no longer prevented during activation
    • Guardian Angel instantly resets upon use

Developer Notes: Mercy's ultimate is one of the most powerful abilities in the game; however, players would often fly into the fray and die while using it. With this update, Resurrect will now take a bit longer to charge, but Mercy will be a lot safer when activating the ability in the middle of combat.

Roadhog

  • Whole Hog
    • Ultimate cost increased by 45%

Soldier: 76

  • Heavy Pulse Rifle
    • Spread recovery will begin after a short delay (rather than instantly)
  • Tactical Visor
    • Ultimate cost increased by 10%

Zenyatta

  • Base shields increased by 50 (now 50 Health/150 Shield)
  • Primary fire weapon damage decreased from 45 to 40
  • Alternate fire weapon damage increased from 35 to 40
  • Orb of Discord and Orb of Harmony
    • Projectile speed has been increased from 30 to 120
  • Transcendence
    • Movement speed is now doubled upon activation
    • Healing amount increased from 200 to 300 health per second

Developer Notes: While Zenyatta has never had the healing abilities of Lúcio or Mercy, he made up for it by dealing more damage. However, his lack of mobility and low health has meant he’s struggled to find a place in many games. To increase his effectiveness, we've made several changes, the biggest of which is an increased shield pool. This will allow him to go head-to-head with more enemies. The Orb of Harmony and Discord changes are also a quality of life change, helping Zenyatta move his orbs around and apply their effects more quickly. And lastly, we’ve increased Transcendence’s healing throughput. This ultimate was designed to be the most effective against sustained, high-damage fire and least effective against short, high-damage bursts (like D.Va’s or Junkrat's ultimates). But, due to the amount of healing it provided, there were times when it was possible for even sustained fire to overcome Transcendence’s output. We’ve made the heal powerful and also allowed Zenyatta to move around more quickly while it’s active.

Game Options

  • Players can now enter numerical values for any option that also has slider (e.g. FoV, volume, sensitivity, etc.)
  • Players can now hide in-game chat by pressing CTRL-SHIFT-C or by typing "/hidechat" into the chat window
  • Controls
    • Mouse sensitivity can now be adjusted out to two decimals
  • Gameplay
    • Mid-match tips can now be toggled on or off (this will enable/disable tips that pop up after a player dies)
  • Social
    • Friend Request toasts can now be toggled on or off
    • Friend notifications can now be toggled on or off
    • Whispers can now be toggled on or off
  • Video
    • Added 21:9 aspect ratio support
    • Players can now enable a real-world clock by toggling the "Display System Clock" setting

Social Features

  • Certain commendations will now appear less frequently during end-of-round voting (e.g. Zenyatta’s Transcendence Healing and Zarya’s Projected Barriers Applied)

General

  • The Hero Gallery now remembers the last hero you were looking at and will properly highlight that hero whenever returning to the gallery
  • Reduced the chance for larger projectiles (i.e. Hanzo's arrows, Zenyatta's prayer beads) to hit targets around corners
  • Fixed a bug that caused the “payload is nearing its final destination” music to continue playing even after the match was over
  • Fixed a bug that caused the UI to disappear whenever the game was forced into windowed mode by an external application
  • Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause visual healing effects to appear on the wrong hero whenever multiple players attempted to pick up a Health Pack
  • Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause different heroes’ victory poses to clip into each other
  • Fixed several lighting issues with the killcam

Maps

  • The payload on King’s Row will no longer retreat back inside its starting location if the attacking team fails to push it
  • Adjusted the Hero Select screen volume for the attacking team on Watchpoint: Gibraltar Added Spectator camera collision to most maps
  • Fixed issues with player collision across multiple maps
  • Fixed issues with ambient lighting and shadows across multiple maps

Heroes

  • Fixed a bug that was preventing friendly hero dialogue not being audible over long distances as intended
  • Fixed a bug that caused D.Va to sometimes ignore player collision when summoning her mech
  • Fixed several bugs where Mei’s Ice Wall would persist in the game world even after the player switched heroes or left the game
  • Fixed even more bugs that allowed Reaper to Shadow Step to unintended locations
  • Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Reinhardt’s Barrier Field to get stuck in the “on” position if the player used the “Toggle Barrier” setting
  • Fixed a bug that sometimes caused Roadhog to accidentally Chain Hook targets standing behind him
  • Fixed a bug that caused Winston’s Barrier Projector shield to ignore the “Sound Effects Volume” setting

Competitive Play

  • Fixed a bug that sometimes caused players not to be able to rejoin games